The BEST Dumbbell Shoulder Exercises (ALL 3 HEADS)

If you have wondered what the best dumbbell shoulder exercises are, you have come to the right place. In this video, I am going to give you the best dumbbell shoulder exercises that fit multiple different categories of training.

The first category up in the best dumbbell shoulder exercises is strength. If you want to get stronger shoulders, then you are going to need to do some form of overhead pressing. While normally a barbell exercise when training for strength, the overhead press done with dumbbells will also increase your strength. This can be done with two dumbbells, or a single one that will allow you to press a little heavier weight than normal and is definitely helpful if you have achey shoulders.

The next category up is power. For increasing power, the best dumbbell shoulder exercise in this case would be the push press. Similar to the overhead press, but getting some leg involvement too will allow you to press heavier dumbbells and generate full body power.

As we move on to hypertrophy, we have to explore the three different methods of muscle growth. The best shoulder exercises using dumbbells in this case would depend on which method you are choosing. If tension overload is your goal, then a heavy cheat lateral raise followed by a strict, 1.5 rep lateral raise is the way to go. This will allow you to keep heavy tension on the delts as you continue to go to and through failure.

For stretch mediated hypertrophy, the best dumbbell exercise to go with is stretch front raise while seated on an incline bench. As we know, thanks to recent research, the stretch portion of an exercise can lead to increased muscle growth, so it is important that we take advantage of this. With your arms by your side, your front delts will be on stretch before taking the dumbbells through their full range of motion.

When metabolic overload is the method you are using, the mechanical drop set that I show you in the video is going to light up your shoulders like never before. Remember, it’s not just about feeling the burn, but about reveling in the burn. Normally, when you feel that burn, you’d think it’s time to stop. However, I like to say that this is where the set begins. You have to endure that burn until you cannot move the dumbbells anymore, then it is time to perform a mechanical drop set so that you can continue through failure.

For total body training involving the shoulders as the primary muscles being trained, the dumbbell power clean and over is my choice here. This will allow you to use a heavy dumbbell that will help to overload the shoulders as well as much of the rest of your body as you go through the exercise. Total body training shouldn’t be ignored, even when a specific muscle group, like the shoulders, is the target.

As a ramp-up exercise for those with achey shoulders or even those that just want to warm their delts up prior to training, you have two options. You can perform either the dumbbell face pull, where you are lying face down on a bench and perform the motion of a face pull with very light dumbbells. With gravity acting as the primary resistance against the dumbbells, you will be able to get all the benefits of the cable or banded face pull but with the use of dumbbells.

Your other option here is the shoulder SFT series, taking the shoulders through all 3 planes of motion. The sagittal plane, the frontal plane, and the transverse plane. This will help to warm your shoulders up greatly before you engage in any dedicated shoulder exercises using dumbbells, or any other piece of equipment for that matter.

Our X-tra category is targeting the rear delts. With this you also have two options to use for your dumbbell shoulder exercises. These two exercises include the urlacher and the rear delt row. I like these options for hitting the rear delts because the traditional exercise of choice, the reverse fly, doesn’t do enough in my opinion. What the urlacher and the rear delt row have in common is that they allow for the elbows to travel back behind the body, unlike the reverse fly. This is the best way to target the rear delts and muscle growth.

Give these exercises a shot whenever you don’t have access to the standard barbell moves or just want to an extra challenge.

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